


How to Quantify

by Rozilla



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Equations Are Sexy, F/M, Science, Stationery is sexy, Thor Feels, Thor is pretty compliant, Woman on Top, Writing on Skin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:13:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1397632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozilla/pseuds/Rozilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It turns out Jane has a personal top ten list of favourite equations - and a nice expanse of hot Norse God to write them on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Quantify

**Author's Note:**

> I can't be the only one who gets a thrill when I write/draw with ink on paper? Especially on a BRAND NEW NOTEBOOK OMIGOD! I'm glad the whole ink on skin thing is a thing, I feel less weird now.  
> All these equations I found on t'internet. Naturally.  
> Here's the one for Sod's Law: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/5223546.stm

When Jane was in High School, she scribbled her favourite equations on the front of her books - dances of brackets, numbers and symbols that baffled most of her teachers. It wasn't long before she had her own top ten list - which of course changed practically on a weekly basis; but there were always a few that she kept returning to. She would repeat them endlessly, some times using her own colour coding system - she remembered doing one set of equations (detailing the brightness of stars nearest to Earth's sun) in scented pens. She had a weakness for Sharpies - something about the _permanence_ was just so dangerous!

This was probably why she did not get laid a lot in High School. Not that it bothered her at the time - she had three things that kept her going in that department; a book of art by Luis Royo (which she threw out when she realised how objectifying some of it truly was), a worn copy of _My Secret Garden_ and some decidedly erotic French fantasy and sci-fi comic books (which she never bothered to translate). She had a preferred type - big dudes. She couldn't account for it, but it probably had something to do with being so small herself. She wanted someone who could - well - not protect her as such (though that was a bonus) but provide _space_. Somewhere for her to feel safe, but free to explore, to wonder and to learn. She was into muscly dudes to, though she would never have admitted it to herself until now - again, it must have been the comic books and fantasy art.

It helps it they have a smooth expanse of skin that is perfect for writing on to.

Thor was nothing if not willing, he lay back, on their bed, bare chest underneath her (still with his sweat pants on), watching her lying on top of him and carefully write out her third favourite equation on the skin of his external oblique (she checked on a chart and everything). She wore a pair of star patterned shorts and a ratty old concert t-shirt, as well as socks because Thor often complained (rather teasingly) about her cold feet.

'This,' she explained, pointing to her handiwork 'is a way of measuring the distance of a star, by using its Apparent and Absolute Magnitudes, that's how bright the star is, to determine the distance in parsecs.'

'I see,' Thor strained to see upside down 'how do you measure how bright a star is?'

'I'll show you in a sec - hold still, nearly finished - are you sure you're okay with this?'

'I am,' Thor said, smiling in a rather mischievous sort of way 'I've never been a canvas before, it's rather... interesting.'

Jane shifted a little along so she was lying along his body, still marvelling at how warm and solid he was _all the time_. He was like a giant, Avenger shaped hot water bottle. Handy, since she had cold hands and feet a lot of the time, due to her bad circulation. He certainly would make a good alternative to a flip chart or PowerPoint presentation - maybe all lectures should be delivered on the bare chests of ancient warrior gods? That probably was taking this too far - she was probably objectifying him enough as it was. He was better conversation than a flip chart at any rate.

'If you are uncomfortable, tell me okay? Don't feel you have to suffer in silence.'

Thor chuckled, she felt it rumble deep in his chest and _oh god_ that was the other thing - that voice. It was just so... rich. Deep. Booming. But still warm and kind. She had always said she loved how he explained things - he could spin a yarn, knew just how to say things in a way that made her more than a little giddy.

'I will speak up, but rest assured, I am perfectly comfortable with this. Besides, it does me good to see you so rapt in your scholarly undertakings.'

When he said things like that, she was half tempted just to bite him. Right there, on his stupidly perfect abs.

'Okay, _this one_ is my second favourite,' she moved up to his left pectoral - having covered his external obliques on his right, along the serratus anterior, over the contours of his abs (rectus abdomines of course) and onto the other side. She had gone from right to left without meaning to - strange. She would go the right way (well, the right way in this part of the world) along his chest. Ah, the pectorals. Sweet. There were men across Midgard who would _kill_ for these pecs. How did she manage to end up with this? She _still_ asked herself this day after day and the only sensible answer she could come up with was - _just shut up and enjoy it._  She let him rest his hands behind his head, grinning slightly at the way the muscles in his arms moved.

'This one is for measuring the surface brightness of an extended source - like a planet or nebulae- but you need to take into account the size of the telescope lens you're using. You have to put in the diameter of the exit pupil - the lens right near the eye piece and the Objective Lens - which is the one right at the end. I use the one from my Dad's old telescope when I'm just doodling. I always remember it.'

She needed the bigger space for this one - she wondered if she should ask him to turn over and try writing on his back - but decided against it. For one thing; she would probably get permanent pen marks on the sheets, not to mention she wouldn't be able to explain what she was doing - which was important. She also hated hated _hated_ leaving an equation unfinished. It was just a thing she had, like Darcy hating the sound of pots being dropped on the tiled kitchen floor or Thor wincing every time the microwave went off.

'I never thought of measuring how bright something is,' Thor mused as she ran the pen down his skin 'I always thought it would be like trying to measure... how happy you were.'

'Nope, you can measure brightness easily,' said Jane breezily 'I have instruments specifically built for the purpose. Matter of fact, I don't need to do these equations half the time, I just do them for fun.'

 _I am such a nerd._ That voice sounded a bit like Darcy.

_Yeah, a nerd who is banging a Thunder God. Suck on that everyone in High School! Who said science never got you laid?_

'I never imagined words and numbers and symbols to be fun,' Thor confessed, shifting carefully to lay his hand on her hair 'they have a kind of beauty I never stopped to appreciate.'

'It helps if they're presented the right way,' Jane finished the last symbol of the equation, right along the line bordering his right pec.

'Yes, that is true, but I often wonder how different things would have been if I had only tried harder to see the simple art of words and symbols.'

Jane sighed a little 'You're a man of action, that's just you. It's what you're good at. I'm good with numbers, measuring, quantifying... that's how I make sense of things. But you know what?'

'What?'

'You still take an interest, you _want_ to know and that's... amazing to me. You try to understand and that's better than most guys -most _people_ \- I've met.'

Thor smiled a little sadly 'I am making up for lost time.'

'Yeah... I figured.'

'With you... and others.'

That sad little echo of his loss, still there, less raw but still present. This was how he dealt with it - appreciating what he had now. The fact it was her, a teeny-tiny Midgardian scientist who still got IDed when she bought wine at the local store (for crying out loud!), was overwhelming. Like basking in the glow of the brightest sun... well, from a safe distance and not in the vacuum of space _obviously_. God she sucked at analogies. Maybe she could make an equation to measure it?

Probably not, but that was a project for another day.

Jane leaned up and gently planted a kiss on his brow 'Do you want me to stop?'

'No. Please,' he pointed to the space of skin still untouched by pen 'you haven't shown me the last one.'

Jane shivered a little 'Right... um... Well, this one is actually not to do with space.'

'Oh?'

She started work on her favourite equation _ever_.

'My Dad used to use the phrase _Sod's Law_ , it's an English thing, to mean that if something can go wrong- it _will_ go wrong.'

'Such as?'

'Well, when you get in the bath and the phone rings, or when you put your jeans in the wash and only then you realise that you have left a irreplaceable pen drive in the pocket once it hits spin cycle.'

'I... think I understand. Like trying to hide in a cave and discovering too late that it holds a Bilgsnipe and her eggs.'

'Yes! I think. Anyway,' Jane began work 'about eight years ago, this insurance company commissioned some psychologists and some mathematicians to come up with a way of calculating _Sod's Law_.'

'So you could work out when it would strike?'

'Yes, though not exactly. I don't know why I love this one so much - it's not got much to do with astrophysics and there's no way it would be entirely certain or as... I don't know _solid_ as working out distance or brightness - but I just... something about it.'

She pointed to each symbol 'There are six factors - task importance, inconvenience, optimism, background personal stress levels, extent of planning and memory. Each of these factors you measure on a scale of one to five - so with my pen drive the importance of washing my jeans was probably... I dunno... three? The inconvenience of getting that pen drive wet and losing about eighteen gigabytes of valuable data that I hadn't back up was probably five. Optimism? That I could get it working again? Probably three. Background personal stress levels? God, honestly? Five. Extent of planning, two and memory... one. I'm an idiot when it comes to washing my clothes and checking pockets.'

She hummed away, Thor almost forgotten, much to his amusement as she pursed her lips and made a quick calculation out-loud 'One eighth of three? Times five... three eigths plus three aaannnddd....'

She stopped as the pen nib brushed against his nipple, making him squirm and the pen ran a line down his side.

'Oh _crap_!' She cursed and lent back in embarrassment 'I'm so sorry!'

'It's quiet alright! That just tickled.'

She stared at her handiwork for a long time and sighed 'I am a nerd.'

'You are, but I didn't think to consider that to be a source of shame.'

'Well... no, I guess not but... is this weird?'

Thor sat up to cup her cheek in his hand, staring directly into her eyes 'Trust me Jane, I have seen many things, weird and strange and beautiful... but this is you. I think it the most beautiful of all.'

Jane leaned forward so that her face was inches from his 'You say the darndest things.'

Thor didn't ask, but Jane just enough time to make a mental note to watch _Local_ _Hero_ with him at some point before they met in a slow, comfortable kiss. Had she been in complete control of her faculties, she would have kept her shirt on before the started really fooling around - some of that pen, as it turned out, was still wet.

 

As Sod's Law dictates - the one morning Darcy came over before Jane had a chance to shower and she had decided to wear a vest top, was the one time she had a series of smeared, mirrored equations on her chest and back.

'Wow, I want details, like,  _right now_ ,' Darcy grinned waggled her eyebrows. 

'What're you? Oh - God!' She looked down at the mess of numbers, brackets, symbols that networked across her skin 'Oh it's permanent to!'

'It just gets _better_! Never thought you as the kinky type.'

'Wait a sec... that's-' Jane looked up, horror etched across her face 'I _didn't finish that last one! THOR! GET BACK HERE! I NEED TO BORROW YOU A SEC!_ '


End file.
